Chapter 12
TWELVE
LAUREN
I stare at him. “Oh, so you’re the funny one. Got it.”
He glares down at me. “I’m being serious.”
I decide right then that I don’t like his face.
It’s too normal compared to Remus’s. Less angular.
Remus has a human face too, but it’s like someone took all his features and stretched them juuuust slightly.
His jaw a touch too wide. His forehead angled deep.
And that grin—that wild, wicked, unnerving Cheshire cat grin that could swallow the world whole.
But he was my wild man.
And while I don’t think Remus could ever be tamed—wouldn’t want him tamed—in our intimate moments together, it was like he was discovering what genuine connection felt like for the first time. Just like I was.
The connection was so powerful, so real, that I can’t help the fury burning through me at this sanctimonious twin who’s suddenly taken his place. Different face. Same body. And that makes everything so much worse.
I’d been having the longest orgasm of my life. Not just physical—spiritual. Remus had been making love to me. There’s no other word for what we’d been doing. Him clutching my face like I was precious. Our bodies cemented together as he demanded and I gave and gave and gave.
I’d never known pleasure like that could exist. Especially not from penetrative sex. But it was like his shaft dragged along every spot inside me and lit me up from a thousand places at once. And watching his face when he finally gave into the pleasure I could tell he was fighting—
The wild shock of euphoria that hit him.
Us locking gazes. Bodies singing together. Chests heaving as we cried out in perfect, devastating pleasure.
But then fear crossed his features. His hands stiffened and went lax around me. His head spun one-eighty.
And suddenly a different man was on top of me, eyes wide with shock as he immediately pulled out—even as I instinctively clenched, trying to pull that familiar body back in, not finished, not ready to let go—
That was shock enough.
Then came Romulus’s words. All of them.
And now he has the audacity to tell me he’s taking me home?
I spit the words with every ounce of venom in my body. “You’ll take me home over my dead body.”
Romulus stares at me like I’ve grown a second head. “You can’t stay here.”
I cross my arms. “I’m not going anywhere until I talk to Remus again.”
He gives me a cold stare that probably works on other people. “He’s not here. I am. And considering everything he did while I slept—” his voice drips with disdain, “—I’d say it’s about time for me to clean up his mess.”
He takes a step toward me.
I dodge around the bed, getting low, arms up. “I’m serious.” I bare my teeth. “I bite.” I snap my jaw at him for emphasis.
Romulus actually pauses to stretch his neck, frowning as he feels along his collarbone. “Yes. I can see that.”
“Not like that!” Heat floods my cheeks, but I push through it. “I hate you. I’ll bite your finger clean off.”
“It’ll just grow back.”
“Wha—” I scoff, completely thrown. Then I rally, crossing my arms tight over my chest. “Don’t you think you should wait until your brothers get back from vacation before you make any hasty decisions? Like, I don’t know, kidnapping me?”
He tilts his head, and something shifts in his expression. He nods slowly. “Well, little girl—”
My spine goes rigid.
“—at last, you say something sensical. I’ll summon Abaddon. He’ll know what to do. At least he’ll back my play because, obviously—” he says it like I’m stupid, “—the logical thing is to put you back exactly where my brother found you.”
“Hey!” The word cracks like a whip. “Why don’t you start trying not to be an asshole, like... right now?”
He narrows his eyes at me, then strides for the door.
Which is another kick to the gut. He’s just leaving.
“Wait!”
He stops.
He starts to turn around, but I wave him off. “No. Don’t. I don’t want to see your stupid face.”
I reach up to Remus’s sleeping features on the back of Romulus’s head and caress his cheek. He looks calm in sleep. Nothing like himself. Remus never looks calm. He’s always riled about something, always burning bright. He’s the very definition of alive.
I stretch up on my toes and kiss his sleeping lips, whispering against them, “Come back to me, my love.”
Romulus doesn’t move for a long moment after I pull back.
For one heartbeat, I let myself hope. Maybe the kiss will wake him. Maybe they’ll switch back.
But no.
Romulus reaches for the door and stomps out. Those massive wings swooping behind him. That tail dragging near the floor instead of dancing playfully in the air like it does when Remus is in control.
I follow him into the hallway. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Wait.”
He slams the door in my face.
I stare at the wood, breathing hard, hands clenched into fists.
Yeah. Fuck that.